“In north London there is a 200m stretch of road named Bobby Moore Way,” wrote Andy Kelly last week. “There are no houses on the road as its only purpose appears to be a slip road on to the North Circular (A406). It seems strange that such a nondescript road with no apparent geographical link is named after the England World Cup-winning captain. Does anyone know why it was named after him? How about other unusually placed roads named after footballers?”

The reasons for Bobby Moore Way to be so named remain a mystery, though perhaps the five-a-side centre which is pretty much the only property on the road has or had something to do with it.

And there are others. If you take West 21st Street out of central Indianapolis in the state of Indiana, cross over Eagle Creek, take the flyover over Route 465 and travel a few hundred yards, you can then turn left on to Maradona Drive, off which you can access Tardelli Lane, Gullit Way, Platini Place, Beckenbauer Way, Pele Place and Cruyff Circle. Why? If anyone knows a particular reason please get in touch.

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There is more arbitrary naming in Nottinghamshire. “I used to live in Arnold in Nottinghamshire and the estate there is named after a number of famous sportsmen,” writes Tony Mason. “Included in a list that are Rod Laver, Alf Ramsey, Christine Trueman, Don Bradman, Colin Cowdrey, Sobers and Graveney. Among these leviathans of the sporting world are also a collection of footballers – John Connelly (Connelly Close, my old street), Henry Newton (Newton Close), Bobby Tambling (Tambling Close), George Eastham (Eastham Road), Terry Cooper (Cooper Close), Jimmy Armfield (Armfield Close), Jeff Astle (Astle Court). There are also roads named after Peter Bonetti, Jimmy Greaves, Jonny Byrne, Cohen and Wilson, Peters. There are no Arsenal players from the 1971 double winning side so assume the estate was named in 1970. No connection there with Nottingham except I once worked with Terry Cooper’s daughter in the city.”

On the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria, you can find, tucked away in the Chevy View Estate, Emmanuel Emenike Road. There is a straightforward explanation for this one though: the former West Ham striker owns properties in the area apparently worth more than £1.3m.

Clubs often name nearby streets after former players or managers. Portman Road in Ipswich has an intersection with Sir Alf Ramsey Way, for example, while Blackburn Rovers have really gone to town in the roads around Ewood Park. The Alan Shearer Way leads to the ground (via the Shearer’s Island roundabout), as does Jack Walker Way, off which you can find Dalglish Drive, Flowers Close, Parkes Way, Speedie Close, Garner Avenue, Hendry Lane, Kendall Close and many others.

Slightly less obvious for the unsuspecting traveller are roads on the site of old grounds for which you might have to know your history to recognise. Lineker Road runs across the area that used to house Leicester City’s Filbert Street ground, for example, while on the site of Middlesbrough’s Ayresome Park you can live on The Midfield or on The Turnstile. And there are stretches of road well away from grounds named after players: the section of the A52 between Derby and Nottingham is Brian Clough Way, for instance, while Sheffield’s Derek Dooley Way isn’t particularly close to either of the clubs’ grounds but does form part of the A61 that leads out of the city and up to Hillsborough.

TABLE TALES

“After some dizzying research, I can confirm those instances are far from unique. It’s absolutely stunning that no one has mentioned the Sussex County League (Division One) of 1998-99, where the table not only spelled a word, but a position on the pitch. The full list: 5th: Shoreham; 6th: Wick; 7th: East Preston; 8th: Eastbourne United; 9th: Pagham; 10th: Eastbourne Town; 11th: Redhill. Yes, that’s a sweeper. Not many teams play with one these days, but just one sweeper covered all the ground from fifth to eleventh place that year.

“Several other instances of words of five letters or more in league tables:

A family affair

“Charlton have just signed Jake Forster-Caskey from Brighton,” wrote Chris Lutton last week. “His stepfather, Nicky Forster, played 10 games for Charlton on loan in 2010. Would this be the shortest time between father and son playing for the same team (even allowing for the fact that Forster is his stepfather)?”

Nick Fredriksson has been in touch with this international-themed response: “While I can’t provide any answers at club level, using the excellent RSSSF as a resource, I have found a total of 15 occasions where a father/mother has played with their son/daughter at international level.

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“The first of them was in 1931, when Arthur Reynold ‘Kelly’ Foster (born 14 December 1890) played for Barbados alongside his son, Arthur Colin Foster (born 25 November 1910), in a 2-1 win over Martinique. The two would play together five more times over the next two years. The last match, against Trinidad in November 1933, not only had ARF and ACF, but ARF’s other son Lindsay Reynold Foster and two nephews, Seymour and Leon Foster. However, Barbados weren’t Fifa members until 1968.

“There were no other matches until April 1996, when Arnor Gudjohnsen (born 30 April 1961) and his son, Eidur Gudjohnsen (born 15 September 1978) played in a 3-0 win over Estonia. There is a caveat for this one, though: Arnor was subbed off for Eidur, so the two never actually played at the same time. 2007 bought four matches with this duality, all women’s. Dr Irma LM Halaby (born 1960s) and Melissa R Halaby (born 22 July 1990) both played for the Northern Mariana Islands, who aren’t Fifa members, in a 7-0 loss to Guam in April of that year. This is the same group of islands that contributed Chevy Kate Alipio, the most recently born international player.

“Later that year, American Samoa (they of the 31-0 loss to Australia) played three matches against Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, and the Solomon Islands. These matches all featured Sandra Fruean Herrera (born 23 August 1968) and her daughter Ivette Herrera (born 20 September 1988), and the 1-1 draw with the Cook Islands was their first international point. The most recent matches have been in 2012 and 2013, featuring Bara Skaale Klakstein (born 24 March 1973) and her daughter Eydvor Klakstein (born 5 September 1995) of the Faroe Islands. Four matches against Luxembourg, Montenegro, Lithuania and Georgia featured this mother-daughter duo.”

Knowledge archive

“Has a footballer ever had a haircut at half-time?” pondered Darren McVeigh back in 2013.

Although we’ve not been able to turn up any tales of half-time barnet-trimming, there have been a couple of reports of a half-time face-fuzz buzz, although as yet the reasons remain a mystery. “Although it technically isn’t a haircut, Sweden and former Celtic defender Daniel Majstorovic had his beard shaved at half-time, while playing for AEK Athens,” writes Yiannis Tsaousis. “The match was Levadiakos v AEK on 30 November 2008. The fun fact is that he didn’t shave it clean, but he came out on the pitch for the second half with a Genghis Khan-like thick moustache.”

And there’s a similarly hairy tale concerning one of the all-time greats. “In all his bearded glory, George Best starred in an indie film festival here in Wellington about six or eight years ago which devoted 90 minutes and a single camera fixed on him throughout a match, on and off the ball,” writes Ian Rogers. “It was late 60s or early 70s for Manchester United, against the powerhouse of Coventry City, and the vice-like boredom of the entire cinematic experience was broken only by George scoring early in the second half. There may have been a second goal, who knows or cares really.

“However, at half-time, clearly they had to do an off-scene retake and fill in shot, and so a non-sweating, fully kitted out, and clean shaven George gazed dolefully at the camera. Cue start of the second half, and he’s back on, beard and all.”

The film in question is East German director Hellmuth Costard’s “Fußball wie noch nie” or “Football as never before” and the game in question was United’s home fixture against the Sky Blues on 12 September 1970. Ian’s memory is slightly off as the beard in question actually appears only at half-time, and to be fair to the filmmaker it’s not entirely clear that the half-time segment is supposed to be in real-time – as well as gaining a beard, Best has lost the No11 from his back. But readers can make their own minds up:

Can you help?

“Preston’s Jermaine Beckford returned to action on Boxing Day against Leeds following his red card for fighting a team-mate,” writes Graeme Park. “Upon his return as a substitute, he managed just three minutes on the pitch before kicking an opponent and earning another red card. Is there an example of a shorter amount of playing time between red cards?”

Here’s Tom Johnson: “John Ashdown reported a couple of weeks ago in the Guardian that: ‘Mick McCarthy’s ludicrously inconsistent Ipswich side … have not recorded successive results of any kind since two draws in the middle of August (their record since: WLWDLDLDWLDWLWLDLWLWL).’ In their three results since they have drawn, won, and lost, taking their total number of consecutively different results to 24. This is indeed ludicrously inconsistent – but what is the longest such record of inconsistent results? Does it even stretch over more than one season? I think we may need a computer for this one.”

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“Going down on goal differential is pretty common, but has anyone ever gone down twice in a row on goal differential? More than that?” wonders Gordon Dribbens. “Which team holds the record for going down on goals, or other tie-breakers? What I mean to find is which is the unluckiest team in all of football?”

“I found myself on the Wikipedia page for French football champions on a recent curiosity binge, and found that RCF Paris (now known as Racing Club de France football Colombes 92) had won Ligue 1 in 1935-36, and now find themselves in the fifth tier of the French football pyramid,” writes Will. “Excluding clubs that have since dissolved, are there any national champions elsewhere who have managed to plummet even further down the leagues?”

“While he was at Southampton, Graziano Pellè played in the No19 shirt, but I remember reading that in all his clubs in Italy he played with No99,” writes Sally Carmona. “That happens to be my favourite number, so I was left thinking: which other great players have worn No99 on their backs? Who is the greatest 99 of all time?”

“Liverpool have not won the league since 1989-90,” writes Brendan Dunne. “In the 26 seasons since then they have never been outside the top eight in their league, have made the top four in 14 seasons, being runners-up three times. In that time, they’ve also won the European Cup once, the Uefa Cup once, the FA Cup three times and the League Cup four times. Can any club surpass that record for consistency while not winning their domestic league title?”